Writing Contemporary History

Description

Writing Contemporary History brings together some of the world's most pre-eminent historians to discuss the core issues confronting students of contemporary history today. Tackling ten key questions of current historiographical debate, each chapter sets in parallel and in opposition the contributions of two scholars. Questions include: Does gender history have a future? When does colonial history end? What is cultural history now about? This volume takes to heart the central rationale of the Writing History series, namely to combine theoretical reflection with the practice of producing historical texts. It introduces the reader to a variety of important theoretical approaches in the field of contemporary history writing and asks how these approaches have shaped historical writing in this important sub-discipline. Writing Contemporary History an invaluable introduction to the central debates that have shaped the field of contemporary history.

Robert Gildea is Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. He is the author of The Past in French History (New Haven and London, Yale University Press), Marianne in chains. In Search of the German Occupation , 1940-1944 (London, Macmillan, 2002) and Children of the Revolution. The French, 1799-1914 (London, Allen Lane, 2008). He is currently directing an international research project on militants in Europe in 1965-75 entitled 'Around 1968: Activism, Networks, Trajectories'. Anne Simonin is Senior Researcher at the French National Scientific Center, appointed at the Maison Francaise d'Oxford for the last three years. Her recent publications included : "L'ecrivain, l'editeur et les mauvaises moeurs" in Boris Gobille and alii (ed), Mai Juin 68, Paris, Editions de l'Atelier, 2008, 411-427; "Le droit au mensonge: comment dire le vrai pendant la guerre d'Algerie", in Luc Boltanski and alii (ed), Affaires, scandales et grandes causes. De Socrate a Pinochet, Paris, Stock, 2007, 249-277. Her L'Honneur dans la Republique. Une histoire de l'indignite de la Revolution francaise aux annees cinquante will be published by Grasset in 2008.